It takes a big network to admit that it's been bad. And when VH1 decided to blow up most of its schedule and announce 44 new shows earlier today, that's exactly what they did.

Pretty much all the shows that have been part of the VH1 lineup over the last few years -- shows like 'Flavor of Love,' 'Rock of Love,' 'Tool Academy' and other high art -- are going to fade away in favor of more documentary-style shows. And, shocker of all shocks, music is coming back, with more music-video-centric shows and the revival of 'Behind The Music.'

Even the network's president, Tom Calderone, seems to think that its high time for the network to ditch its recent tawdry past. "(O)ur audience was getting a little fatigued by all those manufactured reality shows," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "They want more authenticity in their reality, which isn't to say that it can't be comedic and light."

But is fatigue the real reason why VH1 is classing it up? And are they really classing things up at all? A closer examination makes both answers a little less obvious.

After Ryan Jenkins, a contestant on two of VH1's more notorious shows -- 'Megan Wants A Millionaire' and 'I Love Money 3' -- skipped to Canada and killed himself after allegedly killing his ex-wife, Calderone was already talking in sober tones about a change of direction for the network. "We don't want our viewers tuning in and feeling like it's the same network all the time, that is not something we want to be famous for," he told the LA Times in August.

Their aim was to work with different companies than 51 Minds Entertainment, the geniuses who gave us all the shows I mentioned above, along with such classics as 'Charm School' and 'I Love New York.' While the wild and woolly shows created by 51 Minds were garnering good ratings, the same LA Times article mentioned a 12% slip in ad revenue from 2007. So, even if the floozies, drinking, and douchebaggery was getting audiences, advertisers weren't lining up to sell their wares to those those folks.

So not only did the Ryan Jenkins debacle scare the network straight, they're also making a cold hard business decision. But are the shows that they're developing really going to bring that upscale audience that the advertisers are going to want?

Sure, the return of the always-fun 'Behind The Music' and 'Storytellers' will boost the network's classy quotient. But looking at some of the other shows being proposed, that quotient starts going back down.

The contestants of 'Money Hungry' will have to pay ten grand if they don't cut their calories. And, in 'You're Cut Off!,' a bunch of spoiled 'Girls Gone Wild' candidates will be stripped of their party-hearty habits. While those shows sound a heck of a lot less scungy than 'Daisy of Love,' it still doesn't feel much more than rehashes of other point-and-gawk reality shows that we're already seeing. Heck, one of the newer batch of shows already on the air, 'Tough Love,' gets made fun of on 'The Soup' each and every week, and Joel McHale and company aren't laughing at the show's dry wit.

I give VH1 some credit for trying to get away from the "Let's just make another spin-off of 'The Surreal Life'" method of programming. But I'll believe the network has gotten classier when I see it.